Islam becomes hot topic in
Malaysia By Baradan Kuppusamy
KUALA LUMPUR - Islam tops Malaysia's long
list of "sensitive subjects" that are forbidden
from being raised in public. However, it was as if
nothing else could be discussed over the past two
weeks.
Two dissimilar events coming one
after the other in late December have put religion
on notice. One was passage of an Islamic family
law, opposed by feminists and moderate Muslims.
The other was the forced burial, according to
Muslim rites, of a Hindu soldier by Islamic
authorities who insisted he had converted to
Islam.
Both issues have questioned the
role of an increasingly puritanical Islam in a
multi-ethnic society that prides itself on
tolerance and an easygoing, modern way of life.
Under Prime Minister Abdullah
Badawi's more liberal and less authoritarian
administration, long-suppressed frustrations are
rising to the surface and there are growing calls
for fairness and justice.
On one side, the
debate is between Islamic fundamentalists who
dominate the burgeoning Islamic Affairs Department
that administers Sharia (Islamic) law and mostly
Western-educated Muslim feminists who say the
department, in its overzealous interpretation of
the Koran, has gone overboard in making new laws
that discriminate against women and children.
Since the 1980s, they say, women's
position vis-a-vis Muslim men has gradually
eroded. The latest is a new Islamic family law
that makes divorce and polygamy easy and allows
husbands to lay claim to a wife's property, even
to the extent of freezing bank accounts of former
spouses and their children.
"Nowhere is
there, in the Islamic world, a law that
discriminates so thoroughly against women," said
Zainah Anwar, executive director of Sisters in
Islam, a feminist movement that is spearheading a
national campaign to repeal the new law.
The campaign has won widespread support
within the government, in academia and among the
general public.
Likewise the forced burial
of M Moorthy, a Hindu soldier claimed by the
Islamic authorities to have converted to Islam,
has sparked a storm among non-Muslims and moderate
Muslims alike. They are demanding that the
government amend the constitution to make civil
law supreme over Sharia law especially in matters
where non-Muslims are involved.
Islam,
once a taboo subject, is now openly debated by
mainstream media, on television and over the
Internet.
Newspapers that are linked to
government and normally would not have touched the
subject now freely publish strongly worded letters
and commentaries by their own writers and outside
experts, many of whom are Muslims. Letters from
the public are published.
Internet chat
rooms are racier and less inhibited in their
comments. A coalition of human-rights
non-governmental organizations, including Muslim
feminist groups, has also launched a month-long
candlelight vigil outside the High Court to
protest a Muslim judge's ruling last month that
the civil court has no jurisdiction over Islamic
matters.
Relying on an ex parte Sharia
court order, Islamic religious authorities last
week gave Moorthy a Muslim burial over the
protests of his Hindu family. Anger boiled over
when Judge Raus Sharif washed his hands of the
case, saying the civil court had no jurisdiction.
"They have been telling lies. Nothing but
lies," said Kaliammal Sinnasamy, Moorthy's wife.
"I was shocked when they told me that they would
take the body when he died."
The court
refused to intervene or hear evidence from the
family that Moorthy could not have converted,
saying it had no jurisdiction over matters under
the purview of the Sharia court. Three days later,
the same court gave similar arguments while
rejecting an application by two formerly Muslim
women for a declaration that they had left Islam.
"We cannot allow a small group [of Muslim
administrators] who are extreme in their views to
dominate the nation's social and religious life,"
said Wong Kim Kong, a spokesman for the Malaysian
Consultative Council for Buddhism, Christianity,
Hinduism and Sikhism (MCCBCHS). "If no action is
taken by the government then it might sow
disharmony."
The council launched a
campaign to amend the constitution to allow
civil-law supremacy over Sharia in cases involving
non-Muslims, ie conversion, child custody,
disposal of property and other family or personal
matters.
The main opposition Democratic
Action Party has called for a major review of
Article 121(1A), which states that the civil
courts have no jurisdiction in respect of "any
matter" within the jurisdiction of the Sharia
courts.
The clause was inserted into the
constitution by former prime minister Mahathir
Mohamad in 1988 after he had jailed more than 100
parliamentarians and democracy activists and
closed down three newspapers, including the
influential mass-circulated Star daily.
Mahathir's government had given a
truncated parliament a day's notice of the
constitutional change, which was carried with
overwhelming support by government backbenchers.
In the case of the Islamic family law, a
little more time was given but arms were twisted
to ensure its passage in parliament last month,
only to face an avalanche of protest from
civil-society groups and Muslim feminists.
The law affects only Muslims, who make up
about 60% of the population of 26 million people.
Restrictions against Malaysian Muslim men taking
four wives under Islamic law have been eased and
they no longer have to prove financial capacity or
the ability to treat all wives fairly.
Women's groups are planning petitions,
letter-writing campaigns and other strategies to
put pressure on the government not to gazette the
bill into law.
Judging from the numerous
letters in mainstream newspapers and in Internet
chat rooms, most Malaysians are outraged and feel
that injustice has been done to minorities and
moderate Muslims alike.
"This entire
episode has painted a negative image of Islam not
just to Malaysians of other faiths, but to the
rest of the world," said Ezam Mohamad, a senior
leader of the National Justice Party.
"More must be done to enhance mutual trust
and harmony among the different communities, and
the manner in which the present authorities are
doing it represents a step backwards in
interracial and interreligious relations."
Abdullah's brand of tolerant Islam, or
Islam Hadhari, is taking a beating as
people question the wide gulf between his moderate
leanings and the fanaticism of the Islamic
authorities, which gained strength under
Mahathir's 22-year rule.
Abdullah, who is
equally respected by Muslims and non-Muslims, has
the difficult and unenviable task of reining in
the runaway horses or see his popularity rating
plunge.
If he fails to contain excesses,
his grand vision of all the races living together
happily under a caring and tolerant
multiculturalism stands to be stillborn.
Experts say success for Abdullah lies in
tackling and resolving the racial and
discriminatory policies that form the bedrock of
Malaysia's so-called "happy" society.
"Unless the deep-seated issues of racism
and religious freedom are openly discussed and
resolved, Malaysians would continue to live in
fear and suspicious of one another," said S
Arulchelvam, secretary general of the Socialist
Party of Malaysia. "Malaysian unity is a farce
unless these issues are met head-on and adequately
resolved.
"All discriminatory policies
based on race and religion must be outlawed. It is
impossible to build unity based merely on slogans
and propaganda."
